Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Lord Blunkett Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Blunkett (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a privilege to follow the noble Baroness. I offer a very warm welcome to and look forward to the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Mohammed of Tinsley. I know that he will remind me of just how old I am by reflecting on his childhood when I was leader of Sheffield.

Over the last four months, there has been the most misleading rhetoric about Part 2 of this Bill. It is our job in the House of Lords to lower the temperature and get to the reality. If there are amendments to be made to clarify it, we should do so. That is our role, and I hope we can do that in the spirit of coming together in the interests of children.

I take up the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Shephard, that what goes on in the school and in the classroom is what really matters. I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Baker, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Shephard, Lady Morris and Lady Morgan—I will not pay tribute to myself—but I think they would accept immediately that we did not transform the ability of children to succeed or develop their talent, or their ability to shine through. It was the world-class leadership in schools and the first-class teaching and support staff who did that job. That is what we must build on.

Let us set aside the disagreements about whether multi-academy trusts or maintained schools have done better. The stats from the House of Lords Library are very interesting, but I have not got time to go into them. I can pay tribute to the sponsors and leaders of multi-academy trusts, because I was the Secretary of State who floated the academies in the first place. Let us get it right. We have put the record straight about minimum rather than maximum pay and conditions. We can put the record straight on what happens with schools that are failing their children and the interventions that are needed. We can put the record straight on misleading comments about admissions, where the drop in pupil numbers will be catastrophic and there will need to be co-ordination if massive resources are not to be wasted.

I hope we can also clarify issues around the basic entitlement to a national curriculum brought in by the noble Lord, Lord Baker, in 1988. He will speak next, and I pay tribute to him. I ought to declare an interest—I have two grandchildren at Sheffield University Technical College and one going there in September. I know we will be able to clarify during the course of this Bill that the basic entitlement to a national curriculum will not interfere with the innovation and creativity of UTCs.

Let us get it right. There is so much to be done, because absence is up. I feel so strongly about this. Exclusions are up, off-rolling is up and one million children leaving school between the ages of 16 and 24 are not in education, employment or training. In the PISA surveys on life satisfaction, we are second from bottom. There is so much to do, which we can do together if we put the rhetoric behind us and put children first.